The semiconductor industry is continually attempting to develop smaller and finer delineations on the semiconductor devices and to, at the same time, increase the throughput of acceptable devices. There are a number of factors involved which effect the transferring onto wafers of contaminants. These include the use of high temperatures in wafer processing, the use of high electric fields near the surface, the use of liquids in contact with wafers during processing, the use of relatively high gas pressures (greater than one Torr), for example, during wafer processing and the handling of wafers by processing personnel.
At higher temperatures the mobility of contaminants in and on the wafer is greatly increased. Such elevated temperatures are used during epitaxy, diffusion and post-ion implantation annealing.
The use of high electrical fields near the wafer results in at least two types of problems. Charged particles on the surface have their mobilities greatly enhanced by the high fields. Furthermore, the high fields used in ion implantation and reactive ion etching impart large momenta to charged particles in the vicinity of the wafer. These large-momentum charged particles can drive surface contaminants into the wafer and can cause crystal damage to the wafer (as in the case of ion implantation). A crystal defect can be considered to be a contaminant or a set of contaminants relative to several semiconductor device functions.
Liquids are well known to exhibit a `bathtub ring` effect. This effect is the removing of a contaminant from one surface (or area on a surface) to another surface (or another area on the surface). Furthermore, dissolved materials in the liquid can deposit out on the surfaces in contact with the liquid.
When vapor phase chemistries are carried out on the surface of the wafer the by-products must be able to escape from the surface, or they will interfere with the desired chemistries, and they become trapped on the surface (or in the material being deposited when deposition chemistries are being used).
Finally, it is well-known that the `dirtiest things` in a clean room are the people in it. Some handling of wafers by people at this stage of development of wafer fabrication is unavoidable. It is, however, essential that this handling be minimized.